Surrealism

The Persistence of Memory is by far Salvador Dali’s most recognizable paintings, and there are many references to it in popular culture. Although it was conjectured that the soft melting watches were the result of Dali’s interpretation of the theory of relativity, Dali himself state that their inspiration was camembert cheese melting under the sun. The sequence of melting clocks in a disjointed landscape is the depiction of a dream that Dali had experienced, the figure in the middle of the painting being the face of the dreamer himself. The general interpretation is that the painting, which portrays many melting watches, is a rejection of time as a solid and deterministic influence.

The title refers to the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer and the image of Vermeer viewed from his back is a reference to Vermeer's painting The Art of Painting. In this image Vermeer is represented as a dark spindly figure in a kneeling position. The figure’s outstretched leg serves as a table top surface, on which sits a bottle and a small glass. This leg tapers to a baluster-like stub, however there is a shoe nearby. One wrist of the Vermeer figure rests on a crutch-like support. Images of anthropomorphic furniture as well as crutch-like objects are common in this period of Dalí’s career.

Depicted is a grimacing dismembered figure symbolic of the Spanish state in civil war, alternately grasping upward at itself and holding itself down underfoot, a relationship morbidly prescient of Escher's later Drawing Hands (1948). The painting resides at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The painting, which was painted in 1936, is used to show the struggle of war that can sometimes be both self-fulfilling and self-mutilating at the same time. Despite his support of General Franco, Dalí was openly against war, and used this painting to show it. The boiled beans may refer to the ancient Catalan offering to the gods. The little man in the bottom left corner is a representation of the astonishing, awe-inspiring spirits contained in the souls of Anneke and Nikki van Lugo, childhood friends and muses of Dalí.

This painting is from Dalí's Paranoiac-critical period. According to Greek mythology, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a pool. Unable to embrace the watery image, he pined away, and the gods immortalized him as a flower. Dali completed this painting in 1937 on his long awaited return to Paris after having had great success in the United States.

Magritte painted two of these paintings with the same name, The Human Condition, the most well-known of which is the version painted in 1935. A recurring theme in Magritte’s works is illustrating an object that is covering up whatever is behind it. In this painting, the easel used to paint the seascape outside of the doorway is also hiding the doorway, as well as the seascape. The image painted on the canvas also merges with the actual image outside of the doorway, making a seamless transition between the two. Magritte recycled this theme recurrently throughout his painting career, making many variations on the theme of including a painting within a painting, hiding whatever lies behind.

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This work is an ambitious homage to Dali's Spain. It combines Spanish history, religion, art, and myth into a unified whole. It was commissioned for Huntington Hartford for the opening of his Museum Gallery of Modern Art on Columbus Circle (hence the mention in the Title) in New York. At this time, some Catalan historians were claiming that Columbus was actually from Catalonia, not Italy, making the discovery all the more relevant for Dali, who was also from this region of Spain.

The Treachery of Images displays Magritte’s attempt to have the viewer question their reality. The painting portrays a large single pipe, and at the bottom of the painting, in French, states “This is not a pipe.” Magritte’s point is simple: the painting is not a pipe; it is an Image of a pipe. An anecdotal story is that when Magritte was asked if the painting was a pipe, he replied that of course it is not a pipe, and suggested that they try to stuff it with tobacco. He used the same technique in a painting of an apple, portraying a large green apple, with the line “This is not an apple.”

Magritte created two versions of this painting, of the same name, which both portray a large green apple in the middle of a room. This painting illustrates the many themes running through Magritte’s work. The first is the apple, which he uses to great lengths in many of his works, the most famous of which is The Son of Man, depicting a man wearing a bowling hat, with a green apple covering his face. The other theme is that of placing objects together in an unusual context. Unlike other surrealist artists, who mixed dreamlike images with abstract shapes, Magritte’s works included normal images, placed in surreal contextual situations. The Listening Room is one such painting, portraying a regular green apple, which just so happens to be large enough to fill and entire room.

Magritte created two versions of this painting, of the same name, which both portray a large green apple in the middle of a room. This painting illustrates the many themes running through Magritte’s work. The first is the apple, which he uses to great lengths in many of his works, the most famous of which is The Son of Man, depicting a man wearing a bowling hat, with a green apple covering his face. The other theme is that of placing objects together in an unusual context. Unlike other surrealist artists, who mixed dreamlike images with abstract shapes, Magritte’s works included normal images, placed in surreal contextual situations. The Listening Room is one such painting, portraying a regular green apple, which just so happens to be large enough to fill and entire room.